Bakarē

Information from the Periplus

Ancient Toponym: Bakarē
Place Type: Village
Route: Eastern route
Next on Route: Balita
Ancient Area: India
Periplus Chapter: PME, Ch. 56

Topographic info

Longitude 77.5
Latitude 9.5
Location Source: Pleiades

Modern Identification: Vaikkarai
Modern Country: India

Passage from the Periplus

Ships in these ports of trade carry full loads because of the volume and quantity of pepper and malabathron. They offer a market for: mainly a great amount of money; peridot (?); clothing with no adornment, in limited quantity; multicolored textiles; sulphide of antimony; coral; raw glass; copper, tin, lead; wine, in limited quantity, as much as goes to Barygaza; realgar; orpiment; grain in sufficient amount for those involve with shipping, because the [sc. local] merchants do not use it. They export pepper, grown for the most part in only one place connected with these ports of trade, that called Kottanarike. They also export: good supplies of fine-quality pearls; ivory; Chinese [i.e., silk] cloth; Gangetic nard; malabathron, brought here from the interior; all kinds of transparent gems; diamonds; sapphires; tortoise shell, both the kind from Chryse Island and the kind caught around the islands lying off Limyrike itself. For those sailing here from Egypt, the right time to set out is around the month of July, that is, Epeiph. (from the Casson translation)

Bibliography

Ancient source: Pliny the Elder, NH, 6.105

Bibliography

Ancient source: Ptolemy, 7.1.8

Bibliography: nan